Japan: "Go be fat somewhere else"

[CoryKS]

Wow.

Fat in Japan? You're breaking the law.

Under Japan’s health care coverage, companies administer check-ups to employees once a year. Those who fail to meet the waistline requirement must undergo counseling. If companies do not reduce the number of overweight employees by 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015, they could be required to pay more money into a health care program for the elderly. An estimated 56 million Japanese will have their waists measured this year.

Anyone care to guess how companies might choose to reduce the number of overweight employees? Unemployment is probably good for weight loss. Yeesh.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Sounds ok to me. We should make sure it's included in the US plan.

 

[seasoned]

Everyone I have ever talked to wants to get rid of extra pounds. It sounds like some people will have their inter dreams come true.

 

[theletch1]

Sounds ok to me. We should make sure it's included in the US plan.

Only if we can insure that the fat asses in DC have to take what ever plan they force upon the rest of the nation.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Nope. They are exempt from complying with the law. Tax law, employment law, motor vehicle law, Social Security law, and so on.

 

[celtic_crippler]

Sounds ok to me. We should make sure it's included in the US plan.

I'm sure it is.

Nope. They are exempt from complying with the law. Tax law, employment law, motor vehicle law, Social Security law, and so on.

The benefits of being in the Elite.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Nope. They are exempt from complying with the law. Tax law, employment law, motor vehicle law, Social Security law, and so on.

It may seem that way, but no, they're not exempt.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308378,00.html

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/do_members_of_congress_pay_social_security.html

That's not to say that they're honest critters, but they pay taxes, social security, are not immune from being arrested for DUI, etc, and they don't get free health care.

 

[Rich Parsons]

In Japanese Cultures, there is not as much of Letting go or Laying off of people even here in the US.

When they hire Engineers they hire them as contractors many times for a year or two to check them out to make sure they work well with Japanese and work well with the company before hiring them as 'permanent' employees of the company.

The increase cost would be a burden, but my expectation is that the person in question would be shunned by his peers and he would have a "mentor" assigned to him to make him run and work out extra hours in the morning and at lunch and in the evening and he would be expected to do so as he would loss even more 'face/honor' in the work force.

This type of work place environment in the US would be considered hostile and would open the company up for law suits.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

This type of work place environment in the US would be considered hostile and would open the company up for law suits.

As the article points out, the proposed health care bills being discussed in Congress right now contain provisions for incentives for people to get healthy and stay that way.

This is also true of many private employers.

And I'd like to give you an example. A place where I used to work had such a program. Complete a 'health questionnaire' and you would get a small cash award added to your health savings account.

The following year, they added a 'wellness program' and you could save money on your health insurance premiums if you signed up and participated. You had to go visit this private company every quarter and ride a stationary bike, get your blood tested, BP and pulse and height and weight, etc. You had to sit through 'counseling' on what you needed to be working on, such as losing weight or eating better, etc.

The year after that, they made it mandatory. If you wanted health insurance, you had to be tested by the third-party wellness center. If they said you needed to lose weight, eat better, or etc, they 'helped you set goals' and you had to meet them. The punishment was an additional $100 copay per doctor's visit if you failed to meet your goals.

The last year I was there, they changed the rules. If you were told by the wellness center to lose weight and you failed to do so, you lost your health insurance, period.

Oh, and submitting an annual blood sample to the employer's selected 'advisory board' was a mandatory condition of employment.

Legal? Yep. Every bit of it. Because if you don't like it, you're free to quit.

That is what is coming, folks. I've been through it, I know. If you don't believe me, you're in for a shock.

The difference is that when the government runs it, you won't be allowed to quit. We'll end up with 'fat camps' run as prisons, just wait. I give it maybe ten years, tops.

 

[Rich Parsons]

As the article points out, the proposed health care bills being discussed in Congress right now contain provisions for incentives for people to get healthy and stay that way.

This is also true of many private employers.

And I'd like to give you an example. A place where I used to work had such a program. Complete a 'health questionnaire' and you would get a small cash award added to your health savings account.

The following year, they added a 'wellness program' and you could save money on your health insurance premiums if you signed up and participated. You had to go visit this private company every quarter and ride a stationary bike, get your blood tested, BP and pulse and height and weight, etc. You had to sit through 'counseling' on what you needed to be working on, such as losing weight or eating better, etc.

The year after that, they made it mandatory. If you wanted health insurance, you had to be tested by the third-party wellness center. If they said you needed to lose weight, eat better, or etc, they 'helped you set goals' and you had to meet them. The punishment was an additional $100 copay per doctor's visit if you failed to meet your goals.

The last year I was there, they changed the rules. If you were told by the wellness center to lose weight and you failed to do so, you lost your health insurance, period.

Oh, and submitting an annual blood sample to the employer's selected 'advisory board' was a mandatory condition of employment.

Legal? Yep. Every bit of it. Because if you don't like it, you're free to quit.

That is what is coming, folks. I've been through it, I know. If you don't believe me, you're in for a shock.

The difference is that when the government runs it, you won't be allowed to quit. We'll end up with 'fat camps' run as prisons, just wait. I give it maybe ten years, tops.

I agree with if you do not like it you are free to quit is the legal aspect of it. For the company I work for, they started a wellness program in the mid/late 90's and promoted it since to get people to join and get healthier. I asked a simple question that they could not answer. They told me that the data would be stored on a computer at the U of Mich Ann Arbor. I asked if the company was paying for 100% private usage of the data storage device. They could not answer and were confused by my question. But in Michigan if a state U gets any State or Federal Monies (* and they all do *) then they are open to the freedom of information act and a helath care provider could get the information and raise rates or deny services based upon this information.

This is why I say without Tort reform any Federal Health Care system will not work properly.

 

[Carol]

Wow.

Fat in Japan? You're breaking the law.



Anyone care to guess how companies might choose to reduce the number of overweight employees? Unemployment is probably good for weight loss. Yeesh.

Japanese employment laws are different than ours. It is very hard to terminate someone in Japan.

Although I imagine salary cuts are also good for weight loss...

 

[Deaf Smith]

And so what else will be next? Blood pressure law? If you blood pressure is 140/90 do you get counseling or a fine?

Are they gonna require you to jog daily? Some kind of fine if you don't?

And diabetics? Those with coronic ailments? And what about those with hereditary diseases? Stop them from breeding?

Were will this all stop? They have limited severly smoking. Now it's the food you eat. What next? We even now limit what you can say (hate crime laws are very encompassing not to mention campaign laws!)

I could have sworn somewhere in the constitution it talked about 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. I mean somewhere.

Is this socialistic national health care going to turn the freedom this country was built on into a USSR/UK/Cuba style system? Are we going in time to practice eugenics?

That's the problem with 'free' medicine. It ain't free. You pay for it big time.

Deaf

 

[CoryKS]

Japanese employment laws are different than ours. It is very hard to terminate someone in Japan.

Although I imagine salary cuts are also good for weight loss...

But it would be very easy not to employ them in the first place.

 

[Sukerkin]

Bear in mind that social forces are very powerful in Japan.

It might be legally 'difficult' to fire someone but move them to a window seat and they'll more than likely leave of their own accord.

 

[grydth]

The japanese can do whatever they want to in their country, Can't wait to see the anorexic sumo wrestlers in action......

But as has been noted elsewhere, ideas have a way of migrating here. All too soon we'll have health fascists butting more and more into our lives, making decisions for our own good (because they know better) and taxing everything for our own good (they are as addicted to our money as we are to fries) and ever making a mockery of "The Land of the Free".

 

[David43515]

Just this weekend my wonderful Japanese wife sat me down to complain about the weight I put on this year. She explained to me (as if I were a small child......a very dense small child) that Japanese culture isn`t like American culture. (I was shocked). She says that if a man gets sick or gets fat, people look down on his wife for letting it happen. I was basically told "I love you, but you`re making me look like I`m not doing my job so go on a diet."

 

[CoryKS]

Just this weekend my wonderful Japanese wife sat me down to complain about the weight I put on this year. She explained to me (as if I were a small child......a very dense small child) that Japanese culture isn`t like American culture. (I was shocked). She says that if a man gets sick or gets fat, people look down on his wife for letting it happen. I was basically told "I love you, but you`re making me look like I`m not doing my job so go on a diet."

That is an interesting contrast to cultures where wives are looked down on if they aren't fattening their husbands up.

 

[Bruno@MT]

That is what is coming, folks. I've been through it, I know. If you don't believe me, you're in for a shock.

The difference is that when the government runs it, you won't be allowed to quit. We'll end up with 'fat camps' run as prisons, just wait. I give it maybe ten years, tops.

Wow.

Our government has been running our healthcare for ages now. This sort of stuff is already happening here...

Oh wait.... No it's not.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Wow.

Our government has been running our healthcare for ages now. This sort of stuff is already happening here...

Oh wait.... No it's not.

Yet.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Yet.

With that platitude you can argue anything. It's the ultimate cop-out for when you have run out of arguments.

Is it really that hard to admit that a government run program can run better and more efficiently than when it is run by insurance companies?

My 'oppressive' government seems to do a better job at protecting my rights than yours, because my employer cannot get my medical data or badger me into giving it up. He cannot get my credit history either, and he is legally obliged to let me review an information he has on file on me, as is everyone who has a file on me, including the government.